Broken World Campaign - The Beginning

[The Archivist]

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Historical information taken from The Drive,that I as The Keeper of The Drive has permission to post: 

L____________ & Friends – First OD&D game ever Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2005 9:35 pm

Our group carpooled over to Old Black Bart’s home and arrived a few minutes early. We had all brought something to contribute to the food/snack/drink pool for the game.

Black Bart & wife met us at the door and greeted us (as best as I can reproduce it) like this:

“Hail and well met!! Welcome to thee, Gentle Ladies, Good Sirs, - welcome to all who enter my hall in a peaceable manner, and let us share hospitalities. Thy arrival is most timely. I am known as Old Black Bart and this lady most fair is my wife known as Karen The Magnificent. I see that each of thee have brought an offering of both food and drink, mayhap you share my love of feasting. Come! Seat thyselves around yon table above the salt, rest, take food and drink, take peace and enjoy the sanctuary of our keep.”

He generally talked like this throughout the day/evening, but it is all I can do to just try to reproduce his welcome, so this is all of the “colour” that you are going to get.

I will also note here that a veritable feast had been laid out for us, all of it home-cooking, including homemade pies, cookies and ice cream. Yes, homemade ice cream!!

After we were made welcome and had been given a tour, we settled in to our seats and started getting ready to begin the game. This game was going to use only the Three Little Books of The One True Game and Old Black Bart’s (& co-ref Karen The Magnificent) imagination. Starting out they had us roll 3d6 in order with no adjustments of any kind. Hit points are as rolled, plus the constitution bonus if any. What you get is what you play. Note that the characters sex is not identified in the narrative below.

We started with: (my character is Renel BTW)
CN = Character Name, All characters are human unless otherwise indicated

[The Archivist]

CN Str Int Wis Con Dex Cha Class HP GP

Aura 8 14 8 6 15 14 Elf 2 100

Borzak 12 8 8 17 12 11 Dwarf 7 100

Lin 10 12 12 15 10 12 Fighter 4 100

Adak 11 7 16 15 11 9 Cleric 2 80

Renel 15 11 13 13 9 10 Fighter 4 150

Reza 14 12 12 8 13 13 Fighter 3 100

Sajia 14 4 8 15 14 7 Dwarf 3 140

Monju 6 10 12 11 11 8 Cleric 2 100

Zia 8 14 9 10 14 5 Elf 3 90

Tsiar 18 10 12 12 18 15 Fighter 6 140

Rkak 14 12 16 11 15 15 Cleric 5 100

Suak 11 15 10 8 12 14 M-U 2 60

[The Archivist]

Rolling up our characters and getting the basic equipment took about 10 minutes. This included creating a character sheet with lined paper and pencil.

We ended up with two fighting men in plate and two in chain (sword & shield), one Dwarf in plate and one in chain (battle axe and shield), the three clerics in chain (mace or morning star), the Magic-User in leather (dagger) and two elves in leather (3 daggers each). Two fighting men and two elves have short bows. House rule: you cannot use a bow in plate armour.

On the first day, the Magic-User took a sleep spell and the two elves each took Charm Person. The three clerics all took Cure Light Wounds.

Setting: This is a wild frontier area in the northwest of the Bormanian Empire. There are a few elves that venture out from the large forest due north of this area and a few dwarves venture out from the mountains to the northeast of this area. Due west, northwest and southwest of this area are several orc nations. A chasm blocks access from the orc areas directly to the forest of the elves. The frontier area is made up of forested hills, fertile valleys with small streams. The streams converge into a sizeable river just before flowing into the chasm. The orcs nations cannot reach the elves or the dwarves without going through the large human frontier area. This area is sparsely settled with several walled towns. Orcs and humans raid each other’s areas. Humans, elves and dwarves are generally on good terms, humans trade a lot with the dwarves, and trade some with the elves.

Recently things have heated up with the orcs and more raiding has been taking place. The orcs outnumber the humans by quite a bit and one human generations is the same as two orc generations so they tend to forget their defeats quicker. A large force of orcs recently attacked Morrantown and managed to breach the wall. They killed about 60 people and looted/burned several buildings before they could be driven off. As the orcs left the area, they split in to small groups and scattered in all directions.

Volunteers have been called for to go out and see if there are any survivors in the outlying areas around Morrantown and to bring them back if they will come. In addition, you are to drive off any smaller orc bands that are still hanging around or if larger forces are found to retreat and fall back to defend Morrantown. Meanwhile the wall is being repaired and defenses strengthened. A few mounted runners have been sent to the other frontier towns and back to the empire to see if some troops will be sent to defend against these increasing orc intrusions.

Your group is one of the volunteer groups and you are heading due west in a search pattern to cover known dwellings.

[The Archivist]

The first day out we, saw many orc tracks and found three looted and burned out dwellings. The inhabitants had been murdered and mutilated.

Watches were maintained through the night and nothing much happened. The second day we found more burned out dwellings, then while moving through a very hilly area we came in view of a band of orcs, and we looked to be outnumbered. We retreated quickly to a small hilltop as the orcs surrounded us and advanced confidently toward us. Most if not all of the orcs had human scalps hanging from their armour.

Our four bowmen were able fire off two volleys before the orcs closed to melee range. In the two volleys, 3 orcs were wounded. At the beginning of the second round, the magic-user cast sleep and 13 orcs fell to the ground (we counted them later). The fighting men, dwarves and clerics had taken up positions around the base of a very large tree at the top of this hill. As the orcs closed to melee distance, the magic-user Suak and the elves, Aura and Zia, climbed into the tree. The magic user just hung on for dear life but the elves being very used to climbing trees, took up their bows on either side of the tree where they might have a chance to take a shot at any orcs if a clear shot presented itself.

As the nine encircled the tree with their backs to it, the orcs were getting in each other’s way somewhat in their eagerness for blood. Everyone was protected on their flanks in the early stage of the fight. During the first round three orcs were wounded by Borzak, Reza and Adak and one was killed by Renel. During the same round the dwarf Borzak was wounded, the fighters Tsiar and Renel were wounded, the cleric Rkak was wounded and the fighter Lin was killed.

The orcs continued to press the fight and during the second round, the fighting grew even fiercer. Borzak killed the orc he had been fighting; Rkak, Sajia and Monju wounded an orc each. Adak was killed, but no one else took new wounds. Aura and Zia both shot at orcs but missed.

During the third round, the orcs began to seem less confident. The group took heart from this and redoubled their efforts to win the battle. Aura and Zia put down their bows and began to ready their charm person spells. Rkak, Sajia and Borzak each killed the orc they were facing, Renel and Monju each wounded an orc. Tsiar and Reza were killed.

Beginning of the fourth round, Aura and Zia each cast charm person successfully on different orcs. Borzak was wounded and Sajia was killed. Borzak and Monju each wounded an orc and Rkak killed an orc.

Beginning of the fifth round Aura and Zia ordered the charmed orcs to attack the four remaining orcs from behind. Each charmed orcs killed one of their fellows. Renel killed an orc and Borzak killed the other orc. None of the party was killed or wounded this round.

The cleric Rhak healed Borzak fully and Monju healed Renel fully, bandaged, and treated Rhak. The elves dispatched the sleeping orcs and searched all of the orcs for anything of value or of use. Borzak and Renel took up posts to look out for anything else coming our way and we settled down to question the charmed orcs and catch our breath. We were not able to learn much from the charmed orcs, except that they were one of hundreds of raiding parties that were scattered the full width of the frontier and trying both find out how much resistance we humans were able to offer, as will as to pillage and loot as much as possible. We also learned that they had burned over 15 homesteads and killed everyone they found. They had not been part of the assault on Morrantown. We had the orcs help bury our fallen and then we dispatched them. We said prayers for our dead Lin, Adak, Reza, Sajia, and Tsiar and vowed that they would not have given their lives in vain.

We knew that it was very important that we get our information back to Morrantown as quickly as possible. However, the quickest route would bring us near the remaining homesteads that we needed to check. We had to decide what we could carry and so we took buried built a fire to burn and damage the armour and weapons that we could not take with us. We gathered about 10 gold coins, about 40 silver coins and a little over 200 copper coins. They had not much else of value.

We traveled as quickly and quietly as we could away from this area and found a hidden glen were we could spend the night. The following morning Monju healed Rhak and then we were able to travel much faster.

At this point, the party was down to one fighting man, one dwarf, two clerics, one magic-user and two elves.

At this point, we took a 15 min break and then Karen The Magnificent took the dearly departed into a separate room.

Here I will pause until I can type up the next portion of this adventure.

[The Archivist]

This takes us up through the first about 75 min of play. We started out kind of stiff I think. We were kind of intimidated by actually playing with someone who had been playing longer than most of us had been alive. Bart had been playing D&D for 31 years and only 2 of us are older than that and not by much. After this break we started to loosen up and have more fun. I think we started out just trying not to embarrass ourselves, but after a while we started to figure out that our hosts were not going to be judgemental about how we played, they were just there to have fun the same as us!!

[The Archivist]

Continuing on:

We traveled as quickly and quietly as we could away from this area and found a hidden glen were we could spend the night. The following morning Monju healed Rhak and then we were able to travel much faster.

At this point, the party was down to one fighting man, one dwarf, two clerics, one magic-user and two elves. Zia, Aura and Suak all took sleep as their spell of the day and Rhak still had a Cure Light Wounds available. We also decided that if we encountered more orcs that Zia would cast the first sleep spell, then Aura would go next if needed, and finally Suak would hold his sleep spell in reserve.

Zia took the point position, followed by Renell, Monju, Suak, Rhak, Borzak and Aura. We traveled for about an hour or so and came to another burned out homestead, but this time there were no bodies. We took comfort in believing that these people had escaped. As we traveled on towards the next homestead, we saw orc tracks that crisscrossed back and forth several times like they were looking for something and they were very fresh so we became even more vigilant, Zia and Aura took turns scouting ahead. After another two hours we saw smoke in the air in three different places, roughly where each of the three remaining homesteads would be.

We decided to step up our pace, but still maintaining caution and still scouting ahead as we went. In a little while Zia came back and said that the stream was muddied from a recent crossing by orcs and that we must be very close behind them. It looked like about 3 parties had met at the crossing and joined as they went on. Maybe 30 orcs in the entire group. We followed along until Aura came back and motioned for silence and to follow her. We followed a rocky animal track to the top of a bluff overlooking the valley where a homestead still burned. It looked like about 50 orcs were gathered there and they seemed to be arguing about something. On the far side of the valley, we could see several orcs lying dead at the bottom of a cliff face and then we saw about 80 feet up a cave entrance and several men standing in the opening.

We decided that we would try to circle around and lower a rope to the men so they could climb up and make our escape from the orcs. It took us four hours to reach the top of the far cliff. During that time, not much had changed except the number of orcs had increased. It looked like the number had doubled. We tied rope around a tree, but kept back out of sight for the time being, waiting for darkness to fall. While we were waiting, we took turns watching and sleeping. About an hour before sunset, the number of orcs had swelled to nearly 200, and then they split in to three groups one remaining at the foot of the cliff and the other two groups marched off circling to the left and the right. Our hearts sank as it became obvious that they would trap us here at the top of the cliff if we waited any longer.

Throwing the rope over the cliff, Aura climbed down and in a few minutes the men and women were climbing the rope back to the top.

[The Archivist]

These are the new characters for those who died up above.

Introducing Str Int Wis Con Dex Cha Class Hit Pts

Zara 12 11 7 14 13 15 Fighter 4

Dorek 12 12 10 9 12 13 Fighter 6

Raiza 13 13 10 14 16 11 Fighter 6

Jezia 12 11 11 11 14 8 Fighter 5

Siara 14 11 5 9 10 12 Fighter 4

(They had been fed a little info for their background)

[The Archivist]

As they reached the top, the first one said, “I’m Dorek, thanks for the help, now lets run. Follow me.” We could not argue with that and we all hightailed it out of there as the day drew nearer to sunset. As we ran, it soon became apparent that Borzak, the dwarf, would not be able to keep up the pace we were setting for much longer, but darkness was falling and we humans were forced to slow down. However, Dorek said, “We must keep moving as fast as possible There is an old ruin near here and the overgrowth is abnormally thick in the area. I know a way through, but the orcs won’t be able to find the way until daylight.”

We kept going with the help of Zia, Aura and Borzak, their infravision kept us on the path. Finally, we reached the ruins and found our way in through the hidden path. A short distance in and the sound of the orcs faded entirely away, part of the magic of the area we supposed. Dorek and his friends (Zara, Raiza, Jezia and Siara) told us that they had just recently found their way in and were exploring the aboveground portion of the ruins looking for an access to the dungeons that had to be there. They said that half of their party was killed by the orcs and they had just made it up the cliff a little ahead of the orcs. They had thrown rocks down on the orcs that had tried to climb up, but figured that the orcs would keep them trapped while they ran out of water.

Dorek led us to what he said was the most defensible area of the ruins and we set watches for the night and tried to get some rest. We were woken up several times in the night by strange noises that we could not identify, but nothing bothered us.

Dorek slipped back out along the hidden path and then came back saying the orcs were out there but they were just milling around. Dorek said, “It took us weeks to find a way in here and even then it seemed like we were ‘invited,’ so I am not too worried that they will be coming in after us. Why don’t we continue looking for an access into the dungeons while we are waiting for them to give up and go away?”

Borzak said, “That sounds like a great idea and I am just the one to find it!” Aura and Zia piped up, “Hah, I bet you we can find it first!” Borzak said, “Ah, a wager is it. That’s more like it, Hmmmm how about this, when it comes time to divide up anything we find, the winner gets first choice among the three of us when lots are drawn and half the losers share?” Aura and Zia laughed, “Done, dwarves are so easy!”

[Just to explain, for a long time when we divide treasure we decide equal values for everything and then we draw lots for who picks first. The winner of this bet would be sure that they would not be picking last, no matter what.]

Nearly everyone else piped in then and Dorek said, “How about we all take that bet! Winner gets half of everyone else share, up to what they can carry only and picks first and the lot decides the order of everyone else.” We agreed (well everyone except Rhak and Monju) and so we all set to searching. Rhak and Monju just laughed at us and our gambling and said, “We will stand watch and make sure that those orcs don’t sneak in and surprise us, although if they find a way in it won’t matter since we have no place to go.” That sobered our mood, but we soon forgot it as we searched.

A few hours went by and as the sun climbed high in the sky it shed very little light onto the ruins, the Zara shouted, “I’ve found something!” We ran over and saw that she had found a hole and Borzak immediately went to work enlarging it. It took a little while but soon the hole was large enough for the biggest among us to fit. We decided to disguise the hole as best we could and down we went. Borzak took the rearguard and Aura and Zia took turns leading the point. The rest of us in the middle had to resort to using torches. We found several rooms with piles of ruined furniture, patches of rust, cobwebs and just a general mess. Nevertheless, we searched each room but found nothing, and so we continued down the corridor until we came the end. We then had to go back to where we started and went the other way. We found more rooms and eventually we had pretty well covered the area but had found nothing, except a few areas that were collapsed from above, but the corridor led on and seemed to go around behind this area.

As we went a little further Borzak suddenly announced that we were now heading down. This continued for about 100 yards and then we found ourselves at the top of a very steep stairway. Aura eased her way down the stairs and then said, “That’s odd, this corridor looks like it has been scrubbed, the walls floor and ceiling are totally clean.”

That is it for right now more later:

[The Archivist]

oldschooler wrote:

Sounds like the "dungeon cleaning crew" (oozes/slimes/jellies) have been through there. Can't wait to hear more. What are some of Old Black Bart's house rules (if any)?

Hi oldschooler,

I am trying to note Old Black Bart's house rules in text as they come up. So far the only one has been {House rule: you cannot use a bow in plate armour.}

The second one, we just saw evidence of above, but haven't run into at this point (and maybe won't, can tell you yet Wink ) and that is {House rule: available monsters includes the Gelatinous Cube}

He had one typed page of notes and a couple of rough drawn maps and everything else he made up as we went. When some of us would die, his wife would take us in the other room, we would roll new characters and she would give us a little background for our characters and in a little while we would be brought back in the game.

I thought they worked very smoothly together, and they kept the game moving. We never stopped while either of them looked something up. Of course after 31 years of playing nothing but the three LB's with and without portions of the supplements he must have it completely memorized.

[The Archivist]

Gee T. F_____, this is the first game she played, cut her some slack, huh! (you have to read that in an Archie Bunker voice  )

T. F_____ wrote:

Allowing the clerics to have spells at 1st level is a house rule. And of course so is allowing the magic-user to wear leather armor (technically the rules are ambiguous -- IIRC they only specifically mention that m-us can't wear magic armor, kinda like they only mention that clerics can't use magical edged weapons -- but later editions make the intent obvious in retrospect).

You are right, I went back and looked at my notes, those are his house rules.

{House rule: Magic-Users can wear non-magical leather armour only.}

{House rule: Clerics get one spell at first level.}

I will post his revised table for Clerics tomorrow. Thanks for catching that, I am just learning the 3 LB for the first time so I am apt to miss some things.

He also does not allow you to lower one ability score and raise another.

{House rule: None of the ability scores may be lowered in order to raise any other ability score.}

[The Archivist]

Here is Old Black Bart's variant spell progression table for Clerics.

Clerics~~~~~~~~Spells

Acolyte~~~~~~~1 _ _ _ _ _

Adept~~~~~~~~1 1 _ _ _ _

VillagePriest~~~~2 1 _ _ _ _

Vicar~~~~~~~~~2 2 _ _ _ _

Curate~~~~~~~~2 2 1 _ _ _

Bishop~~~~~~~~2 2 1 1 _ _

Bishop and after is by the book

[The Archivist]

[Side note, my current group tries very hard not to let OOC knowledge surface in our PC’s, we try to decide up front what the character knows first hand, what they have heard about and what they don’t know. As it happens, no one in this group of PC’s knows anything at all about any of the cleaning crew or dungeons aside from what a dwarf would know and we played it that way.]

We decided to continue and joined Aura at the bottom of the stairs, looking around we could see that the corridor extended into the distance in both directions.

Rhak said, “This looks pretty big, let’s not get lost down here.”

Borzak replied, “Dwarves don’t get lost, we spend most of our lives underground.”

“And if you get killed, we find our way out how?” said Rhak.

Borzak pulled a piece of chalk out of a pouch and handed it to Rhak saying, “Here you know how to use this don’t you?” Rhak just took the chalk and rolled his eyes, and muttered, “Dwarves!”

{House rule: Dwarves have a natural sense of direction that is usually reliable, but a number of things can interfere with it and the dwarves will not be aware that they are going astray until they out of the area of interference, unless of course they are carrying the interference with them.)

Zara piped up, “Why don’t we go to the right and just follow it around and see where it goes?” That was agreeable to everyone so we started down the corridor. About 70 feet down from the stairway we can to a battered looking door on the right hand side of the corridor. Trying the door, Zia opened it easily but with a very loud creak. She saw a long narrow (about 4 feet wide) entryway. Aura and Dorek stayed in the corridor while the rest of us went inside down the entryway into a large room that extended back to the right. There was stuff piled everywhere and at least half of the room had rows of broken down shelving. There were broken up barrels and boxes in one area, piles of broken pottery in another, piles of rusted armour and weapons in yet another. It looked to have been a major storeroom. We poked around through it looking to see if there was anything of value but finding nothing that wasn’t ruined.

Zia and Borzak were looking around the walls and in the southwest corner, according to Borzak, they found a door. Borzak tried to open it and couldn’t budge it, but Renel was able to open it. It opened into a passageway that was just wide enough for one at a time and immediately went around a corner. We decided that we didn’t want to go into that tight of quarters just yet and moved back to the main corridor.

Over the next 200 ft or so, we found a number of small but mostly empty rooms along the right hand (south) wall of the corridor and no opens in the left hand (north) wall of the corridor. We then came to the end of the corridor were it made a 90 right turn and headed south. Again, we found doors only on the right hand wall (west wall). The third room we came to in this area had a large wooden table setting in the middle of the room with large chairs, 20 in number, setting around it. They were well worn and looked to have been moved recently. The floor was very dusty and there were many marks on the floor as though the room had had a lot of something moving around. The table did not have any dust on the top of it, it was set with plates, utensils, large mugs, and none of it was dusty. There were other smaller tables, cabinets and other furniture. Along the south wall was a large mirror and paintings of battles were hung on the other walls. These were large enough that it would have required two of us to carry one of them. As we searched through the cabinets we found more items for the main table, pots and pans, and in one of the cabinets, we found a highly polished set of silver knives, seven in all, which we took.

Just then, Dorek backed into the room and said, “Zia hears something coming and it sounds like a lot of them too.” We figured that the orcs had caught up with us. Pulling Zia into the room, we closed the door and tried to put the table against the door figuring that if they couldn’t open it maybe they would move on down the corridor. However, we couldn’t budge the table at all or any of the other furniture. We couldn’t even move the chairs; they seemed to be fixed in place.

We took up positions around the door fighters in the first rank and prepared to fight whatever came through. Gradually the sound got louder, a marching sound but odd somehow, a rattling clattering sound. Then finally the door opened and skeletons bearing swords and shields clattered into the room. Rhak stepped up and commanded them to leave and the five closest turned and clattered out. Monju also stepped up and commanded them to leave a half beat after Rhak and four more turned and left. The remaining ones in front closed with the fighters as more came in the door behind them. Borzak and Renel each shattered a skeleton with hard sure blow while Zara and Dorek failed to make a solid hit and Dorek was wounded. Raiza scattered a skeleton with a hard blow, while Jezia was wounded and Siara was killed when she tripped.

In the second round Borzak was wounded while scattering another skeleton and Renel was wounded. Zara was also wounded, but she put a skeleton down and out of it for good. Dorek takes another small wound and shattered the skeleton that was attacking him. Jezia is killed and Monju, who had moved up when Siara went down, scattered a skeleton. Rhak, who moved up as the fight had spread out, also took out a skeleton.

The third round was over quickly, with Borzak and Renel combing to take out a skeleton, Zara and Dorek did the same, as did Monju and Rhak. Monju and Rhak then healed Dorek and Zara who was the worse wounded, bandaged, and treated the wounds of Borzak and Renel.

Sadly, Siara and Jezia had been killed. We decided to head back up top for now and carrying our dead started back. There was no trace of the turned skeletons in the corridor and we made it back to the stairs without incident. As we started up the stairs, we heard sounds in the distance coming from the other direction that we had not explored yet. Making it carefully back outside we found the area still empty. Zia went out to check on the orcs and reported that there were about 30 in the area but it looked like the others were gone. We buried our dead and rested.We decided that the dungeon would have to wait for now but we would be back.

The remainder of the day passed, as did that night with nothing else happening. We broke camp very early in the morning well before daylight. Monju and Rhak, healed Borzak and Renel bringing us to full strength. Aura slipped out and was gone for a while, when she came back she reported that there were still about 30 orcs in the area, most were sleeping and the two orcs standing watch were not very alert. She had scouted a ways each direction and did not see or hear any other orcs. We decided to attack them and then make our escape.

We laid out plans and Zia, Aura and Suak slipped out first and took up their positions and then the rest of us moved out as quietly as possible and slipped up slowly up towards the orcs. Then as planned Aura and Zia each shot at their pick of the two guards that were “awake”. Aura killed her orc on the first shot, but Zia missed her target. The orc that was missed starting shouting. They both quickly shot again and this time Zia killed her orc. The other orcs were waking up and the camp was in turmoil with shouting going on. Suak cast his sleep spell and a good number of the orcs when right back down. The rest of us got ready to charge and started yelling at the top of our lungs. Then Zia cast her sleep spell and all but two orcs when down. Borzak and Renel moved in on one orc and Zara and Dorek moved in on the other. In moments these two orcs where also down. We went ahead and killed the sleeping orcs except for the one who looked to be the leader, him we bound his arms securely behind him and gagged him. Aura and Zia moved out to scout and see if there were any others around. While they scouted we searched the orcs and found some copper and silver and a little gold. However, the leader had a sword with writing on it, when Borzak saw it he exclaimed that it was dwarven runes but he would not say what it said. He claimed the sword as his saying; he would need no share of anything else we found beyond a little coin for his expenses. We decided that it would be wise not to argue about it; he looked as though his mind was pretty made up. Anytime a dwarf talks about giving up rights to treasure, you had best take him seriously.

We went ahead and questioned the orc leader, he sneered that they would push us out of the area for good this time and take the land for themselves. He refused to tell us anything else, so we killed him and left him to rot.

Aura and Zia came back and could not find any sign of other orcs nearby. We started back toward Morrantown. We still had two homesteads to pass on the way. We found the first homestead about two hours later, it had not been touched, but it was deserted. Continuing on we were approaching the remaining homestead when a spear come sailing out of the brush and pined Monju to the ground. In moments, we were all fighting for our lives Ambushed by orcs. We put our back together and were trying to buy time for Aura to cast her sleep spell. Borzak cut an orc in half with his new sword as it easily sliced through chainmail. Renel, Dorek and Raiza were wounded while each wounded an orc that they were facing. Rhak wounded the orc that he faced. Zia was killed with another flung spear and Zara killed an orc in turn. During the second round Aura cast, her sleep spell and was able to put 10 orcs down for the count. Borzak took a minor wound and wounded the orc that he was fighting. Renel was killed, while Dorek and Raiza killed the orcs that they were facing. Suak was killed and Zara killed another orc. Rhak killed the orc that he faced this time. In the third round, Borzak rushed to the aid of Aura and knocked her out of the way as he took a sword thrust on his shield. Zara when down fighting and Dorek moved to confront the orc that killed her. Meanwhile Raiza battled the remaining orc and Rhak moved to help her. During the fourth round Borzak withstood the raging orc and then dealt the orc a deathblow. Zara and Dorek killed the orc they faced and Rhak finished off the orc that Riaza was fighting. We went ahead and killed the orcs that were sleeping.

In seconds, our numbers had been reduced to six and we quickly buried them in the sandy soil and placed a few larger rocks over them to discourage the scavengers. We salvaged what we could and moved quickly along. The remaining homestead had been burned but there were no bodies. We decided to force march back to Morrantown and get our report in before anything else happened. It took us three more hours to get back within sight of Morrantown and another two hours after that to reach the city. We found the captain of the city guard and gave him our report. After grilling us for more details he let us go get something to eat and get some rest.

In the mess hall, we begin to catch up on the news making the rounds. It seems that the other groups that had made it back had fared about like we had and that several groups had not come back yet. It was rumoured that were would be getting reinforcements to help push the orcs back out of the area soon. So we tended to our gear and got what sleep we could as we waited to see what would come of this.